A lithography technique is used for forming a desired circuit pattern on a semiconductor device. In the lithography technique, a pattern is transferred using an original pattern referred to as a mask (reticle). In order to manufacture a precise reticle, an electron beam writing technique having an excellent resolution is used.
As one type of an electron beam writing apparatus for electron beam writing on a reticle, there is a variable-shaped writing apparatus. In the variable-shaped writing apparatus, a figure pattern is formed on a target object placed on a movable stage by an electron beam which is shaped by passing through an opening of a first shaping aperture plate and an opening of a second shaping aperture plate.
Such an electron beam writing apparatus requires data processing for converting layout data input thereto to shot data for actually shooting an electron beam onto a target object. The data processing is required to be optimized corresponding to increasingly complex layout data and writing method.
JP-A 2008-218857 discloses a method for allocating CPU according to the number of patterns in a process region upon parallel distributed processing of data.